From the start she used the on board VGA grafic board (ATI X1200) and it all worked fine. She then bought a PowerColor X1650Pro grafic board and installed ATI Vista driver and it worked fine. Unfortunatelly the X1650Pro got defective after 1,5 month and she got a new one on warranty. Unfortunatelly the second X1650Pro also got defective after 1,5 month. Same fault on both.She uninstalled the driver for X1650Pro.She then got a GeCube HD2600Pro and installed the grafic board on the MSI K9AGM3-F. Now the problems begun!

When she powered up the PC Vista found new hardvare and started to install the driver for the board. Vista found HD2600Pro and requested to be rebooted. She rebooted the PC and when Vista should start it crached. The PC booted twice and the she booted up in Fail safe. A new rebbot and Vista started. When the desktop showed Vista informed her that the system had recovered from a serious fault and she was recommended to search for a solution to the problem.In the Hardware manager the grafic board was found to be a standard VGA board.

She rebooted the PC again and when starting up Vista found new hardware and tried to install driver but failed. She then inserted the installation disc for the GeCube. The ATI window splashed up, red and nice and stayed in that position for about one hour before she rebooted the PC again. No menue from the installation disc appeared during the hour.I came to her help and I spent 3 days trying to install the ATI HD2600 Vista driver to her system. It failed all the time.

We then removed the GeCube HD2600Pro and brought i home to me. I have a Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3 motherboard and a Sapphire HD2600XT running Windows XP Pro. We removed my grafic board and installed her GeCube HD2600Pro to my system. When booting my system powered up and run fine!

We then made a clean installation of Vista Ultimate on my system, with her GeCube installed. The installation run fine and when Vista was installed Vista also had found the HD2600Pro. We then inserted the ATI Driver disc and it took 30 seconds and the menue on the ATI windows splash was shown. The driver from the disc was installed successfully and the Vista system run fine.

We confirmed that her GeCube HD2600Pro did not have any fault.Once again back to her home. We uninstalled her SATA drives, installed a Western Digital 80GB IDE drive, installed the GeCube HD2600Pro and made a clean Vista installation. When the Vista installation was finished and booted it crashed once again. We struggled for 1,5 days again to find out how to get the HD2600Pro to run with driver.

I finally found that if I forced Vista to install the driver for Windows XP the HD2600Pro was running fine and Vista was stable. Unfortunatelly all grafic functions does not work, like Vista Aero.I borrowed the 80GB drive, installed into my system, made a clean Vista installation on the drive and did only install the driver for HD2600. I then got it back to my girlfriend, installed the drive and booted the PC. Vista craches as soon as the Vista driver is installed to the system.

I have now updated the BIOS to the latest BIOS, V3.3. Still the system refuses to run with Vista HD2600 driver in the system.I have removed everything than can cause problems, changed the BIOS settings in all ways I can figure out but nothing helps getting the system to run with HD2600 grafic board. I have installed my Sapphire HD2600XT to her PC but still Vista crashes as soon as the Vista driver is to be installed.If the XP driver is installed to the system the system runs, but Vista Aero does not work.

Now I have come to the conclusion that the fault is on the MSI K9AGM3-F motherboard. Mabye it is the on board VGA that causes the fault, even when it is "disconnected". Unfortunatelly there is no way to disable the VGA in BIOS. BIOS only allows "Auto detect" of external PCI-e grafic board and the disables itself from on board VGA.

Does anyone have any sollution on how to get around the problem, except for buying a new grafic board or a new motherboard? ATI HD2600 based grafic boards seems to create conflict with MSI K9AGM3-F.

Unfortunatelly I do not have the details for the PSU. The PSU is a Colors-IT 350W. That is what I know at present. I have to go to my girlfriend to find out more.It is nothing wrong with the PSU. It is fine for her system and the power is enough.

No, I have not tried with only 2 DIMM. I can do so during the weekend.

I have not tried Windows XP on the system. Remember that her Windows Vista accepts the XP driver for HD2600Pro! When the XP driver is installed the system is stable but the Aero function in Vista can not be enabled (I assumes that Aero uses DirectX 10 and the XP driver does not support DirectX 10).She can use the settings of 1600 * 1050, 32 bit color and 65Hz refresh rate.

As the system runs fine with the HD2600Pro and XP driver installed in the Vista OS there can not be any conflict with the PSU or the memory DIMM.

I am sorry to tell you but 350W is more than enough for the system that I am working with!If the system runs fine with Vista but with the driver for XP, stable and fine, then it is not the PSU causing the problem!

The PSU is not to blame that a driver can not be installed into a system! Blaming the PSU is an easy way to get away from trouble shooting.

If you do not agree, explaine to me how a driver can cause PSU problems.

"From the start she used the on board VGA grafic board (ATI X1200) and it all worked fine. She then bought a PowerColor X1650Pro grafic board and installed ATI Vista driver and it worked fine. Unfortunatelly the X1650Pro got defective after 1,5 month and she got a new one on warranty. Unfortunatelly the second X1650Pro also got defective after 1,5 month. Same fault on both." Might in fact be that the PSU couldn't handle either any longer. Only the onboard g. card was alright, wasn't it.

"When she powered up the PC Vista found new hardvare and started to install the driver for the board. Vista found HD2600Pro and requested to be rebooted. She rebooted the PC and when Vista should start it crached." Very typical of a PSU problem.

What PSU do you have yourself, as things work better in your system? You might try her PSU in your system.

I agree with Bas: that PSU is not good enough. Comparing systems is not a good thing - too many things are different. Vista-systems do need quite some power, so you better change the power supply for one with at least 30 amps on 12V. Saying that the PSU cannot be blamed is nonsense, PSU's are very often the cause of a huge variety of problems.

Of course, it is no guarantee that this will solve the problem, so you maybe you can borrow a psu somewhere. But chances are big that it will solve the problem.

Now, try this suggestion first ...

Logged

You have a Q-Tec Power Supply? Change that first and come back later...

Well, that's just a fine idea... Now we we will know if this is the problem or - if not - we can rule it out. (Still: if the problem is not in the psu now, a 350W is too weak. It will run, but you may find yourself in trouble within a few months. So, a better psu is recommended, whatever the outcome, but that is your own responsibility of course...)

Logged

You have a Q-Tec Power Supply? Change that first and come back later...

Yes, I will check her system with a more powerfull PSU. I have talked to her tonight and her son has a PC with Xilence 800W PSU. We might be able to borrow his and I will then not need to remove mine and bring it home to her.I am still convinced that her PSU is fully enough for her system.

Note that the power consumption for the tested setup is for the entire system and the system is more power consuming than my girlfriends system.

If the PSU is to weak then her system should be unstable and causing craches not related to driver issues. There are power limiters built in a PSU for PCs and they will pull down the voltage as the current drain will rise. When the current limiters is activated the voltage will decrease and cause the system to crash.

Her system is running fine as long as the Vista driver is not installed.

Regarding the Silverstone 300W and PSU in common,You can never get the full current drain from all power lines at the same time, unless the PSU is cabable of it. The Silverston can support a maximum of 300W. If you drain all power lines from that PSU you will drain more than at total of 420W (there are - power lines too), 120W more that it is cabable of.If you try to drain all power lines to the max the fuses will blow or the PSU will collapse.

Also for you information, I have connected a 300W PSU, FSP Group Inc. to MY system and that system runs fine with this PSU! Please look in this topic and you will find the configuration of my system. Once again, I have replaced my Xilence 600W PSU to this 300W PSU and my system still runs fine in Vista with the HD2600XT driver installed and working!

Data for the FSP-300 60ATV

+3,3V max 28A+5V max 30A+12V max 18A

Now, lets get into the real problem, why can´t my girlsfriend install ATI HD2600Pro Vista driver to her system? I still do believe that it is the MSI Motherboard causing the problem!

My system (for spec. look in the topic) works fine with 300W PSU.MY girlfriends system, stripped to the bone (motherboard, AMD X2 4200+, one 80GB IDE drive, HD2600Pro and 4*1GB PC5300 DIMM) does not work with 420W PSU.You still claim that it is the PSU that causes the problem. Very odd!

I get your message. Help is not to be found her. I will look for help elswhere to find the solution.

Yes. My wish wasn't for any PSU tried in her system, but to try her PSU in your system. (Have a feeling that, if you keep that unspec. 300W PSU in your own computer, you will soon experience strange things.And, take HD2600 graphics card out too, when trying. Use the onboard, as that has been known to work.

I think one should have an open mind. We suggest a PSU up to about Bas' specs below. We base that on what you say is the problem and the system part you listed.

For your information,This evening, despite the fact that I did not believe that the PSU is causing my girlfriends problem, I replaced her PSU to a Xilence 800W.For spec: http://www.levicom.de/xilence/en/xp800.(135)r.htmThe only things that was connected to the motherboard was AMD X2 4200+, 1GB DIMM (only one module), 80GB WD IDE harddrive, 1 DVD Optiarc AD-5170IDE and GeCube HD2600Pro. Noting else was applied to the system.The system crached when trying to install the driver for the grafic board, HD2600Pro! Vista was started in Fail safe mode and splashed that it had recovered from a seriuos system fault.I made a fresh, clean installation, formatting the hard drive first. Once again when the OS was installed it crashed as soon as the driver for the board should be installed.It all works in fail safe mode. It also works if the XP driver is installed in Vista but then the Aero function of Vista does not work. The display resolution can be fixed at max level (1650 * 1200 and 32 bit). As soon as the Vista driver for HD2600Pro is installed the system craches! Only way to get the system to work is to remove the driver while in Fail Safe mode. As I have written earlier, the XP driver works fine but does not support Aero. With the XP driver for HD2600Pro installed in Vista the system is stable.

All this with Xilence 800W power supply! The PSU is normally used in a system that runs XFX GF8800GT 512MB, 2*1GB PC6400 DIMM, AMD X2 6000+ , WD 320GB 16MB SATA II, Optiarc AD-5170IDE and 2 fans, one in front and one in rear panel.

This just confirms the fact that the PSU has nothing to do with the problem, what so ever!

Yes, the onboard VGA works but does not support Aero. The HD2600Pro displays a better resolution, using the XP driver in Vista, than the on board VGA does.

Last year, in September, I built a system for a friend using MSI K9VGM motherboard. AMD X2 4200+ and 1GB PC4300 was all that was installed and I used a 300W PSU. The system had big problems booting! Note that only motherboard, CPU and one DIMM was in use. I posted my problem here and the standard reply was then as it is now, replace the PSU.I ended up using a 550W Corsair PSU for the system, once again despite my believe in that the PSU was the root of the cause.Did the Corsair 550W PSU solve the problem? Nope!

The problem was the motherboard! When replacing the motherboard the system booted every time, even with the 300W PSU. I got the motherboard replaced by warranty. I then completed building the PC and it still works fine today, using 300W PSU.

Now I have posted another question, a driver can not be installed running Vista. Your reply is the very same standard reply, blame the PSU.

Bas, you have something to learn about the relation between Volt and Amperé. Watts is for real and have a big importance in the relationship.

Yes Fredrik, one should have open mind! That is certanily something needed on this Forum. If you had an open mind, if you would like to try to help, (I am a member on another site and I am supporting others when they have problems. But I only respond on issues that I know about and they are a lot) when someone declaires a problem, do not throw your standard reply, Blame the PSU. Try to think a bit more, openminded, what can cause such a problem and not always blame the PSU.I have been working a lot with solving problems with PCs and I have come across one PC with PSU problems only. I have had about 55 PCs with different problems and only one with PSU issue. The rest have had some kind of hardware or driver problem.

Yes! I have found the root that causes the problem with my girlfriend PC and her new HD2600Pro grafic board. I have spent 6 hours this evening, looking for the root to the cause.As you already know it is NOT the PSU. Now her own PSU is back into the system and the GeCube HD2600Pro Vista driver is installed with a fully functional Aero.She has the very same hardware (no hardware has been replaced and will not be replaced) as from the start and it is all working fine now. I even know how to recall the fault, whenever I want!

I do not expect that you are interested in the root of the cause to the problem is as you only want to blame the PSU. In this case it is NOT the PSU.

This is my last posting on this site. PSU is not the cause to all PC problems but it is the standard reply here, Blame the PSU.

What driver fails? Do not use what Windows might suggest!! Download from AMD/ATI.

I guess you had a look-out for the system error messages?

What does your girl friend think is the problem?

Adding: Went out for a smoke. - As it is mainly the 3D application that suffers, you might check that the fan (normally there is a fan on these cards) is spinning. And of course that the card is 100% down it's slot.- Windows and sound is an age-old issue. For a spin disable onboard sound when installing. As said, download Vista drivers from ATI/AMD.- Was it 3D application problems that made you return the other ATI-cards too?- I may have missed if you already done it, but have you tried the main suspects in your system yet, her PSU and her Radeon card?

Hahaha, just wait until the summer starts and temperatures go up....Typical during the summer those el-cheapo PSU's start giving problems.But hey, you do your watt game, what do I know about that stuff?I'm electronical skilled Ham radio amateur, callsign ON9ABH...you get those with a box of chocolats?

It means that you need a PSU that can do about 2x that amount of 12V amps.People don't realise this, but most PSU's can only deliver the rated max at ~21C!!!!As practical all PSU's get around 35~45C internally (more in the summer), they can barely deliver 1/2 of the power!!!

At about 70C, a PSU delivers 0W, ergo, it's eating 100% of the input, and that's no joke.

Last year, in September, I built a system for a friend using MSI K9VGM motherboard. AMD X2 4200+ and 1GB PC4300 was all that was installed and I used a 300W PSU. The system had big problems booting! Note that only motherboard, CPU and one DIMM was in use. I posted my problem here and the standard reply was then as it is now, replace the PSU.I ended up using a 550W Corsair PSU for the system, once again despite my believe in that the PSU was the root of the cause.Did the Corsair 550W PSU solve the problem? Nope!

I thought I read that somewhere.

We are interested; we are also trying to go through steps to identify and fix the problem. You can lead someone to water, but you can't make them drink.

For the entiresystem, not the graphics card alone. I see nothing has changed since I've been away as far as the knee-jerk faulting of the PSU if the brand does not 'conform' to the personal brand-preferences here.

There are problems on AMD 690G boards from multiple vendors when you populate 4GB (or greater) using four modules with 64-bit OS (Linux and Vista). Here are some representative examples: